Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I think Moorehead are the partis that have that darker head (they come in silver partridge as well) but I could be wrong too
I don't breed them, so have never really taken the time to do much research. I had considered them, but when I found out about the double mating system, I decided to go with an easier color (that would take up less space). I do love them tho, they're gorgeous and you've got some real beauties!

 

[Bryam]

If I have a porcelain rooaster and a painted hen, will they produce painted chichs? How dles the paint gene work?

Thanks!!

 

[Troubadour05]

If I have a porcelain rooaster and a painted hen, will they produce painted chichs? How dles the paint gene work?

Thanks!!

Well, there are a lot of variables to that one. I am not 100% sure about porcelains, I've never gotten into them, but I believe they are buff diluted with lavender. Lavender is recessive (need 2 copies of the gene) so that would not show in your chicks because there would only be 1 copy of the gene from the roo but none from the hen.
With paints, there isn't really a "paint" gene, it's a white gene that does it. There are 2 types of whites in chickens, Silkies typically have the recessive white gene, needing 2 copies or they will not be white. There is also dominant white which only needs 1 copy to show up. This is where you get the paints, a silkie with 2 copies of dominant white will be all white, but with only 1 copy you will get "holes" in the white that show the black underneath. The other thing about whites is that the recessive white effects both black and red pigments, while dominant white effects black but allows red to bleed through.
Sooo.. My guess would be that you would have paints BUT that red from the buff would leak through and you would have a yellowish paint

Anyone else, correct me if I am wrong or missed something!

 

[kamichaud11692]

The paint with leakage offspring would only make up 50% of them, the other half would not get the dominant white at all. Assuming your paint is black under all that white, the other chicks would be black or a dark color with buff leakage I would guess.

 

[Bryam]

Cool! The roosters carries many colours, the hen is from strictly black, white and paint birds. I would love to get buff paints and black paints! Fun!! She just started laying a few weeks ago, so I will wait a bit before incubating the eggs!
Many rooster is 20 weeks old and he is already mounting her! I have never had a rooster figure it out that early!! Can a silkie rooster successfully mate at 20 weeks? The hen is 26 weeks old!

 

[Wappoke]

I would like to add some additional information to what others have posted.

Porcelain are mille fleur and also carry lavender. And as others have stated, paints are a genetically black chicken that carries a single copy of the dominant white gene. Dominant white is a leaky gene and a single copy does not normally produce a solid white bird in a genetically black chicken.

mille fluer silkies carry recessive mottling, are columbian restricted ( carry two incompletely dominant columbian genes) and most likely brown at the E locus. As was stated by others, lavender is a recessive gene.

crossing a porcelain roo and paint hens would produce gold birchen ( genetic birchen) looking birds and offspring similar to a red pyle phenotype.

gold birchin would be similar to a a gray color pattern but replace the white with red

it is also possible for the cross to produce a color pattern similar to a dark black tailed red

There are other phenotypes that are possible- dominant white birds can carry genes that would produce various phenotypes in the offspring.

Please note that on all the descriptions of the offspring I added wording so that the descriptions are not saying the offspring would be a variety but would have a resemblance to a variety.

 

[Bryam]

Well, there are a lot of variables to that one. I am not 100% sure about porcelains, I've never gotten into them, but I believe they are buff diluted with lavender. Lavender is recessive (need 2 copies of the gene) so that would not show in your chicks because there would only be 1 copy of the gene from the roo but none from the hen.
With paints, there isn't really a "paint" gene, it's a white gene that does it. There are 2 types of whites in chickens, Silkies typically have the recessive white gene, needing 2 copies or they will not be white. There is also dominant white which only needs 1 copy to show up. This is where you get the paints, a silkie with 2 copies of dominant white will be all white, but with only 1 copy you will get "holes" in the white that show the black underneath. The other thing about whites is that the recessive white effects both black and red pigments, while dominant white effects black but allows red to bleed through.
Sooo.. My guess would be that you would have paints BUT that red from the buff would leak through and you would have a yellowish paint

Anyone else, correct me if I am wrong or missed something!

When you say colour leakage do you mean like white with leakage of beige throughout the white, while having the black spots of the paint? Or all white with buff spots? Basically I would be producing a calico Silkie?

 

[Bryam]

FYI I have a pure white Silkie hen that was fathered by a dark buff rooster and a grey partridge mother, this chick has NO colour leakage, why?

 

[Wappoke]

FYI I have a pure white Silkie hen that was fathered by a dark buff rooster and a grey partridge mother, this chick has NO colour leakage, why?

Recessive white does not act like dominant white. The hen carries two recessive genes for recessive white. Both parents were carriers of one recessive white gene. The probabilities that the parents would produce white offspring is 1 in 4.

Recessive white is caused by the inability of the chickens pigment cells to properly produce tyrosinase. The gene responsible for producing tyrosinase has an avian retrovirus inserted into the gene. The product that is produced can not take part in the synthesis of pigments that give the feathers color. No pigments equals white plumage.


Dominant white on the other hand has nothing to do with pigment synthesis. Dominant white effects the packaging of pigments. The pigments have to be properly packaged and moved to the feather follicle where the pigments are added to the feather. The feather follicle cells do not accept the packages for some reason and the pigments are destroyed. Sometimes the pigment packages are not destroyed and you get black spots on a bird.

The dominant white gene only affects the black pigments and not the packaging of the red pigments. The red pigments will leak ( added to feathers at the follicle)
through the white producing red feathers. This can only happen if the bird has the genes that cause the production of red pigments.

The amount of red pigment can vary from a small amount to a large amount this is dependent upon the genetics of the bird.

take a look at the red pyle on this page. A good example of red leakage.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jamesgrebey/cock-a-doodle-oo-la-la

 

[Wappoke]

When you say colour leakage do you mean like white with leakage of beige throughout the white, while having the black spots of the paint? Or all white with buff spots? Basically I would be producing a calico Silkie?

Some dominant white birds will leak red pigments ranging from bright red to buff. A chicken must have the correct genetics for this leakage to occur. Where ever the bird should be red the bird will show red and where ever the bird should be black the bird will be white.

if dominant white were carried by a black tailed red bird (New Hampshire), the black would be changed to white and the breeder would have produced a white tailed buff.

Take for example buff birds ( like buff leghorns). A problem buff birds have is black showing in the tail and wings. To get rid of the black specs etc,. breeders have incorporated dominant white into the variety. This gets rid of the black and allows for the buff to show.